With founding sponsors remaining and new corporate partners emerging with the advent of the team's ProConti status, there's very much a 'homegrown' feel to the squad led by Canada's most famous cycling export, Steve Bauer.

One of those Canadian companies involved over the long term is Argon 18, which itself represents the ethos of the SpiderTech team and will now be seen throughout Europe and at some of the world's biggest races for the first time in its brief history.

Former racer Gervais Rioux founded the company in 1989, having sold the brand through his Montreal, Canada, store after retiring from racing professionally. In 2001 the company launched its first all-carbon bike and a decade later is the technical sponsor for that nation's first Professional Continental team.

During the team's launch at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, SpiderTech riders entered the stage on Argon 18's Gallium Pro, the company's flagship road model and the E-114, it's time trial offering.

The man who took third place in the U23 road race at last year's UCI Road World Championships, Guillaume Boivin, will be riding a medium Gallium Pro in 2010, clad with a full 7900 Dura-Ace groupset, including C50 or C35 carbon wheels and Dura-Ace pedals.

The team will use Shimano's Pro brand componentary, including bars, stem and saddles, with Boivin utilising offerings for each from Pro's range.

One of the squad's key signings, local boy Svein Tuft, will use the team's E-114 time trial bike for the discipline in which he won a silver medal at the 2008 UCI Road World Championships.